The present invention relates to vacuum cleaners. More particularly, the instant invention relates to improvements in the nozzle structure of a convertible vacuum cleaner which can be utilized for either on the floor cleaning or off the floor cleaning as desired.
Many vacuum cleaners heretofore developed and presently available are capable of both on the floor cleaning and above the floor cleaning. Such convertible vacuum cleaners usually employ a suction generating fan and some sort of valve for controlling the application of the suction developed by the fan either to a floor nozzle or to an auxiliary suction inlet located on the housing of the cleaner. One end of the flexible suction hose is generally attached to such a suction inlet. The opposite end of the hose is usually adapted to receive one of a variety of tools suited for above the floor cleaning such as brushes, wands and the like.
While the suction control valves utilized in such convertible cleaners are generally capable of performing their intended function, some have not proven to be entirely satisfactory. Most of the known devices utilize a single valve for regulating the flow of air through both a first air passageway leading from the floor nozzle to a filter bag and a second air passageway leading from the auxiliary suction inlet to the filter bag. The use of a single valve to perform both functions may not always be advisable. Also, the valve would sometimes jam disabling the vacuum cleaner and necessitating the disassembly of the vacuum cleaner to repair the valve.
In addition to the aforementioned problems, many of the convertible vacuum cleaners are objectionable from the standpoint that considerable time and effort is required to convert from on the floor cleaning to off the floor cleaning and vice versa. One of the reasons for this is that the cleaning tool hose utilized on some of the cleaners needs to be detached from the cleaner when not in use and is oftentimes stored at a location remote from the cleaner itself.
In order to solve this problem, some cleaners allow for storage of the cleaning tool hose directly on the vacuum cleaner. Such cleaners usually have one end of the hose permanently secured to the auxiliary suction inlet in the housing.
While cleaners of this type did eliminate the inconvenience of storing the cleaning tool hose at a location remote from the vacuum cleaner, many of these cleaners are cumbersome to use and store due to the construction of the handle of the cleaner and the manner in which the cleaning tool hose was secured to the vacuum cleaner when not in use. In addition, sometimes a clogging of the auxiliary suction inlet or the cleaning tool hose would occur. This caused a problem for those vacuum cleaners in which the hoses were permanently secured to the auxiliary inlet of the vacuum cleaner.
Accordingly, it has been considered desirable to develop a new and improved convertible vacuum cleaner which would overcome the foregoing difficulties and others while providing better and more advantageous overall results.